


Text Messaging For The Dead

by adeclanfan



Series: Elizabeth!Verse [36]
Category: Sanctuary (TV)
Genre: Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-07-22
Updated: 2012-07-22
Packaged: 2017-11-10 11:28:16
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,573
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/465762
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/adeclanfan/pseuds/adeclanfan
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Nikola thinks James is haunting the London Sanctuary, so he tries to create a machine that will allow him to talk to James. Except that James doesn't want to talk to him.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Text Messaging For The Dead

Text Messaging For The Dead

prompt – Nikola Tesla: failed experiment

 

Nikola didn't tell the head of the London Sanctuary, as much as he respected Declan Macrae, his building was haunted by the ghost of James Watson. He was keeping it to himself while he formulated a plan. His plan involved creating a device that would allow him to find and communicate with James; if James was still lurking about. 

It was on his list of things to build, but there was so much going on in his life, it was shelved a number of times. 

On more than one occasion Nikola had passed through an electromagnetic field within the old building in London strong enough to cause his hair to stand on end and his skin to prickle with static electricity. At the same instant, Nikola had been able to detect a scent the vampire's keen hunting senses attributed to James. It was a combination of James' pipe tobacco and brandy and the musky male odor that was just him. 

Nikola was on alert for it, now, when he visited. He found himself having conversations with the air in an empty room, and looking like a madman for it. Still, there was the possibility something of James remained behind when he died and Nikola held the hope tightly to him. 

The principle theory he was working with was sound. He found himself investing first in EMF detectors and sound recording devices like those used by 'ghost' hunters on television. But, when they didn't yield the results Nikola wanted, he ripped them apart and remade them to his own satisfaction. 

With enhanced specifications, Nikola was able to determine he wasn't mad after all, there was an energy field roaming the London Sanctuary. The question remained as to whether it was James or something else that had lived or died within the Sanctuary and still called it home. Another question was if the energy was a thinking being or merely an imprinted recording of events from someone's life.

It was a long, complicated process to take his own electromagnetic properties and create an autotype-like device to allow the energy to interact with a device in a way that could be translated into alphanumeric characters. He was sure that if James was capable of thought, he would reach out and at least attempt to communicate. 

Nikola never considered for an instant James wouldn't want to speak to him. They'd had a good, if inexplicable, relationship for over a hundred years, after all. 

When the device was finished, Nikola called Helen and asked her to come to London. Then, he called Declan Macrae and told him that good news. Both Heads of House scoffed at the idea of a text messaging device for the dead, but they indulged Nikola, because the man was a genius and it wasn't something that could blow up, blow out the Sanctuary's EM shield, or harm anyone in any way. 

And what if Nikola was right? Wouldn't it be good to have some closure with James; to tell him the things they regretted not saying before he passed on? 

“Really, Nikola. How long have you been working on this device?”

“On and off for about two years.”

Declan frowned, “And you're just getting around to mentioning you think James is haunting the place?” 

“What good is mentioning it if we don't have a way to find out if it's him and talk to him?”

“Well, get on with it. I don't think I like the idea of living in a haunted bloody house.”

Nikola sat down at the keyboard and typed a single word, **James?**

They waited for a about two minutes and nothing happened. Nikola got up and walked the perimeter of the room. His circle was nearly complete when he passed Helen and felt the familiar prickle of what he was sure was James' ghost. “Gotcha. He's standing right next to you.” Nikola put his arm out at waist height about a foot from Helen. “Here.” Helen and Macrae both stared at the empty air around Nikola's arm.

“Maybe he doesn't know what to do with the sensors?”

Nikola thought about that, sat back down and typed, **touch the keys and we will be able to see it as text**

The waited another few minutes and still nothing of note happened. 

Nikola was growing more and more frustrated by the minute. “The calculations are correct, the calibration must be off. I'll be back in a minute.” He hurried from the room and almost immediately the screen on his machine lit up with a line of text. 

_Helen_

_Tell the bastard to stop walking through me. It's bloody annoying._

Helen's eyes grew as wide as saucers. She looked at Declan and he'd gone pale as a sheet. 

“James! Is that you?” She didn't even stop to think that she should type her question rather than yell it out. 

_Yes, love._

Helen burst into tears. “Why are you haunting in the London Sanctuary? Isn't there someplace you're supposed to go?”

_Yes, I could go. But it wouldn't be any fun without you and Nikola._

That didn't make Helen feel better, in fact it made her cry even harder. “You don't have to wait for me...”

_Not just you. Want to see how the kids get on._

“I'm doing the best I can, James...” Declan's voice was choked with tears, “It's not easy, you know. There's a bloody lot of them. And they miss you.”

_Doing well, my friend. Couldn't ask for better._

Declan wasn't so sure. “I've made a few mistakes with Lizabeth...”

_DO NOT LET NIKOLA BITE HER AGAIN. OR YOU. LECHEROUS BLOODSUCKING BASTARD._

Helen gasped, “You're angry at Nikola. Is that why you didn't answer until he left?”

_YES_

“It's Elizabeth's choice, though, isn't it?” Helen asked. “We can't control her desires.”

There was a long silence. Finally, two words appeared. 

_MARRY HER._

“Who do you want to marry her, James? Me? Declan?”

All the text on the screen went stubbornly black as Nikola swept back into the room. 

“Well, that was interesting,” Declan muttered under his breath. 

“I need to make some minor adjustments and it will work, I know it will.”

Helen wiped her tears and smeared eye makeup on her handkerchief and gave Nikola a wan smile, “Why don't you try telling James you're sorry for biting his daughter, and stop walking through him, first.”

Nikola frowned at her. “You think he's just mad and refusing to talk to me?”

Declan smiled and gave him a pat on the shoulder, “It's worth a try, mate.”

Nikola never did get the machine to work for him. Even after he begged James' forgiveness and promised to try not to walk through him. It went down in his notes and a failed experiment. 

Declan Macrae asked that the machine be left in his office. He said he liked the idea of it. When Nikola got it right, text messaging with the dead would become the next television reality craze. 

Nikola let him have it. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~

Later that night, Declan returned to the lab with Tesla's invention and sat down at the keyboard. He typed James a message, not knowing if his mentor would see it or not. 

**Can't sleep. Who is supposed to marry Elizabeth?**

A minute later a reply came. 

_~Eyeroll~ Both of you, of course._

To the air, Declan said, “Polyamory isn't exactly legal in the UK.”

_Helen created a small country for Abnormals, where you make your own laws. Elementary, dear boy._

Declan's jaw set stubbornly. “I want to marry her here in London. White wedding. All the trappings.” 

_~sigh~ Have you tried ASKING her?_

His cheeks flushed. “No.” What if she said no? 

_Maybe, you should have tried asking her BEFORE you forgot the CONDOM and knocked her up with twins?!_

Declan winced, because he could hear the sharp displeasure in James' voice as if he was really yelling at him. “What do I tell Lizabeth and the other kids about this device? Do you want them to know you are still around looking out for them?”

_Can't talk very often, drains me. I've let them know already. In my own way. Elizabeth has seen me._

Of all the things he'd failed at, this was the biggest and hurt the most. And of course James knew. “Those sadistic bastards hurt her, James. They very nearly killed her...” Declan's guilt was crushing. “What could I have done to prevent it?”

_Not a thing._

“That's not a good enough answer. Damn it. There has to be something we could have done to have avoided that? Had a bodyguard on her. Made her have a car and driver to and from work...” 

_Suffocate her with your over-protectiveness and she'll wither away to nothing. If you want her to be safer, have her and your children live with Helen._

“I haven't even thought about what we'll do once the babies are born. I don't want to live apart from them.” The thought of not being with them, seeing them everyday, made Declan's stomach turn. 

_Then don't._

“I've got to run this Sanctuary and take care of all your other wayward miscreants.”

_Move them underground with you. Tell Helen I told you to. She'll hate that._  
 _I need to rest, now, Declan._

“Right. Good night, James.”

The End. 

(So this was the hardest prompt ever in Sanctuary_bingo, seriously. What do you think?)


End file.
